A variety of belts have been proposed and put into practical use for a continuously variable transmission of the type wherein the belt is passed on drive and driven pulleys. A typical one of such belts includes an endless (loop-shaped) steel belt or cylindrical ring which is formed by laminating a plurality of endless steel sheets. A plurality of steel elements are supported on the ring in a manner to be aligned along the periphery of the ring so that the adjacent ones are contactable with each other. Each pulley includes axially movable and fixed wheel counterparts which are coaxial with and face each other to define therebetween a pulley groove. The axially movable wheel counterpart is axially movable under an axial thrust of a controlled hydraulic pressure so as to change the width of the pulley groove. The belt is put in the pulley groove in such a manner that the opposite side edge faces of each element are in frictional contact with the frustoconical surfaces of the respective movable and fixed wheel counterparts of each pulley.
However, the following drawbacks have been encountered in such a conventional belt: That is, an initial clearance is produced between the adjacent elements when the belt has been assembled. Additionally, the steel ring of the belt is extendable under a tension applied to the belt when the transmission is operated upon the belt being passed on the drive and driven pulleys. As a result, a slip has been unavoidably generated between the belt and the drive and driven pulleys. This degrades the durability of the belt while lowering a power transmission efficiency of the continuously variable transmission.